It is of note that the Death Guard under Monarion quickly became associated with the use of alchem and radiation weaponry to a greater extent than any other Legion, further darkening their reputation with their battle-brothers. Simply put, the use of toxic gas, crawl-burning Phosphex and contaminated rad-shells did not rankle their Legions honour as it did for some, while Mortarion himself was a master of such weapons and student of the most horrific arts of war, and had no compunction in their use against any that threatened humanity. Furthermore while Space Marine physiology was engineered to be resilient to such poisons and taints, the Death Guard were more so. Exposure to a pathogen or toxin that would kill an unprotected human in seconds might only inconvenience or impair a member of the Legiones Astartes,?but to a Death Guard, it often did nothing at all. This led the XIVth?Legion to be more and more frequently deployed into battle in warzones where hellish and lethal conditions—be they atomic, bacteriological or chemical in nature—were present, and in which they would then excel.?The Great Crusade was, after all,?launched to conquer worlds not destroy them, unless there was no alternative, but in such warzones, already hopelessly contaminated and unsuited for human life, the usual caveats and protocols restricting the use of contaminate weapons by the Emperor's command did not often apply. This resulted in a kind of self-fulfilling fate for the Legion, as they were ever more associated with the most nightmarish of wars and in them the use of the most terrible weapons.

值得注意的是，相比于其他任何軍團，莫塔里安指揮下的死亡軍團對于煉金學(xué)和輻射武器的使用到達了一個更大的范圍，這讓他們的名聲在戰(zhàn)斗兄弟間變得更為黑暗。簡單來說，使用毒氣、火焰會四處蔓延的磷火炸彈和污染環(huán)境的輻射炮彈并不會讓死亡守衛(wèi)軍團像某些軍團那樣榮譽受損，同時莫塔里安本人也是使用此類武器的大師，以及最為恐怖的戰(zhàn)術(shù)的研習(xí)者，而且他對使用此類武器對付那些威脅到人類的敵人的作法毫無愧意。另外，星際戰(zhàn)士們都接受過了生理改造，獲得了對于輻射和（有毒）污染的抗性，而死亡守衛(wèi)們的抗性尤為強悍。當(dāng)暴露在能于數(shù)秒內(nèi)殺死一名無防護凡人的病原體或毒素中時，（一般的）阿斯塔特軍團戰(zhàn)士可能只會感到不適或受到損傷，但對死亡守衛(wèi)軍團戰(zhàn)士們而言，這通常不會造成任何損害。這導(dǎo)致第十四軍團被越來越頻繁地派往那些有著地獄般致命環(huán)境的戰(zhàn)場進行戰(zhàn)斗——無論這些戰(zhàn)場的自然環(huán)境中是充滿原子輻射、存在危險細(xì)菌的還是遍布化學(xué)毒素，而他們之后也將會擅長在此類戰(zhàn)場上作戰(zhàn)。畢竟，帝皇發(fā)動大遠(yuǎn)征是為了征服世界而不是摧毀它們，除非別無選擇，但在這些已經(jīng)被嚴(yán)重污染且不適合人類生存的戰(zhàn)區(qū)中，帝皇所下達關(guān)于限制使用有毒污染武器的警告和協(xié)議并不經(jīng)常適用。這就讓死亡守衛(wèi)軍團陷入了一種自我應(yīng)驗式的宿命：他們越是陷入到最為恐怖的戰(zhàn)爭中，就越是在戰(zhàn)爭中使用最為可怕的武器。

A timbre of horror and charnel taint seemed to adhere to the Death Guard then, long before the Heresy was born, and they came to be to some extent shunned and suspected by their fellow Legions in a way the Dusk Raiders bad never been, although in truth how much this was to do with their sinister Primarch rather than the Legion itself is debatable. Mortarion himself kept little company with his fellow Primarchs, save for Horus and Curze upon occasion?beings perhaps in some way more likened to himself than the rest, and by others such as Perturabo and Lion El'jonson he was actively shunned. It is said by some sources that?long before he actively betrayed his second father, Mortarion and his Death Guard came under suspicion to the extent that watchful?Corax and the resolute Guilliman had separately brought their misgivings to the Emperor in person as to both the Death Guard's operations and just?where its macabre and secretive masters loyalties lay; If this is true then the Emperor dismissed their concerns as unfounded, and in this he was tragically mistaken and the dark destiny of the XIVth Legion and its Primarch prefigured.

在大叛亂爆發(fā)很久之前，死亡守衛(wèi)們身上似乎就彌漫著一股恐怖和陰森腐壞的氣息。他們在某種程度上受到了其他軍團的排斥和懷疑，而這是他們在黃昏突襲者時期從未經(jīng)歷過的，但事實上，這種現(xiàn)象在多大程度上與他們邪惡的原體有關(guān)，又在多大程度上與軍團本身相關(guān)，是一個有待商榷的問題。除了偶爾與荷魯斯和科茲交往，莫塔利安本人很少和自己的其他兄弟們?yōu)槲椤苍S在眾兄弟中，相比之下，牧狼之神和午夜幽魂在某種程度上與死亡之主更為類似；而對于佩圖拉博和萊昂 艾爾莊森之類的其他人，莫塔里安則是極力回避。某些資料聲稱：在莫塔里安與死亡守衛(wèi)軍團主動背叛帝皇很久之前，他們就在某種程度上受到了懷疑，警惕的克拉克斯和意志堅決的基里曼就曾分別上疏帝皇本人，表達自己對于死亡守衛(wèi)軍團的所作所為，以及第十四軍團那位神秘且恐怖的主宰者——莫塔里安所忠誠對象的疑慮；如果這是真的，那么帝皇就是忽視他們的擔(dān)憂，認(rèn)為這是毫無根據(jù)的。人類之主在這一點上悲劇性地犯了錯誤，（因為）第十四軍團及其原體的黑暗命運已經(jīng)被預(yù)示了。